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CABOT COVE, ME–Local, state, and federal authorities are on the manhunt for two male suspects wanted in connection to the grisly slaying of mystery writer and resident celebrity, Jessica Fletcher.

Fletcher's body was discovered early Saturday morning in her home at 698 Candlewood Lane. Although she was the victim of multiple injuries and sustained at least three gunshots, preliminary reports from the County Coroner's Office indicate that cause of death was a stab wound to the chest.

Forensic teams recovered a total of four shotgun shells from the crime scene. However, their placement and other evidence suggest that the attack on Fletcher began outside her home, where all four shots were fired. Her attackers then pursued her into the house.

The County Coroner's Office has determined that Fletcher was struck by at least three shots before fleeing indoors. One official requesting anonymity explained, "The shells appear to have been loaded with rock salt. Hurts like hell, but non-lethal."

Once inside, Fletcher suffered an attack of "extreme violence," according to the same source. "The whole house is in total disarray. Everything's tossed this way and that. Even the furniture. And not just scooted aside or knocked over. Looks like stuff just flew across the room."

Fletcher was discovered on her back in the kitchen, where she appeared to have collapsed to the floor after incurring the fatal stab wound. She also displayed several defensive wounds, as well as a broken nose, indicating a violent struggle before suffering the mortal blow.

SUSPECTS AT LARGESheriff Andy Broom has released images of the two lead suspects in the case. Those images were captured by security cameras at the Sheriff's Office days before the attack on Fletcher.

At present, the two are only wanted for questioning in regard to Fletcher's murder. No evidence links them directly to the crime. However, arrest warrants have been issued against both men for impersonating federal agents in the days beforehand.

"They identified themselves as Agents Jovi and Sambora of the FBI," Sheriff Broom shared in a press conference. "They claimed to be investigating the Alice Kavanagh case."

Alice Kavanagh, another resident of Cabot Cove, was also found murdered in her home, one week before the attack on Fletcher.

When asked if the two cases were linked, Sheriff Broom said, "That's certainly a possibility. As of now we have no evidence to suggest that these two suspects had anything to do with Ms. Kavanagh's killing, or if they were even in town at that time, but assuming that they were in town and involved, that certainly would have put Ms. Fletcher in the crosshairs."

Local reporters laughed knowingly at the sheriff's remark. "Ms. Fletcher has solved more murders in this town than me and my deputies combined," Broom then explained to outside press.

"The Kavanagh case is still open," he continued, "but the last I saw of those two 'agents' was last Friday, the day before Ms. Fletcher's murder. Inquiries made to the FBI have since revealed that there are no Agents Jovi and Sambora in their employ."

MURDER, SHE LIVEDJessica Fletcher is best known as the prolific novelist J.B. Fletcher, whose bestselling mysteries include such titles as The Triple Crown Murders and The Crypt of Death.

In addition to spinning tales of murder, she also assisted local police in solving many real-life homicides, both here in Cabot Cove and New York City, where she maintained a second residence while teaching criminology at Manhattan University.

"Not just here and New York City," clarified Cabot Cove resident Ethan Cragg. "Everywhere she went. The woman couldn't book a flight without signing someone's death warrant at the other end. She went to visit family in Ireland, boom, someone dropped dead. She went to Hollywood to sign a movie deal, boom, somebody dropped dead. The Fletchers threw a family reunion, boom, a Fletcher dropped dead."

Multiple police departments throughout the U.S. confirmed that Ms. Fletcher acted as a consultant in many investigations.

"'Consult' is a soft way to put it," said Grady Fletcher, nephew to the victim as well as her legal ward as a child. "She solved those cases, through and through, often investigating them independently until she could convince the authorities that she was on the right track. Too often she put herself right in harm's way. Cops who wouldn't believe a word she said at first were all too quick to then use her as bait to draw the perp out while they hid in the next room. That's not consulting. That's doing the cops' job for them."

CABOT COVE: MAINE'S MAJESTIC SEASIDE MURDER CAPITOL OF THE WORLDCabot Cove has seen more than its fair share of homicides over the years. In fact, FBI statistics have determined this quaint seaside town to be the murder capitol of the United States.

Two percent of residents are murdered here per year. Even more visitors to the area meet a fatal end during their stay. Locals have even come to refer to this troubling trend as "Cabot Cove syndrome."

Although the town has maintained a steady population of roughly 3,500, that figure has been constantly replenished by prospective homebuyers drawn to this picturesque coastal community from elsewhere. "It's actually kind of a goldmine for me," admits local real estate agent Eve Simpson. "Homeowners get killed all the time. Surviving families move away, new families move in, someone offs the new owner. It's like a revolving door. I have some properties that I've sold two or three times over."

Former Sheriff Mort Metzger agrees that the murder rate here is astounding. "Every other week we had a fresh stiff on our hands," he shared by phone from his home in Nyack, New York, where he retired. "When I took that job, I thought the most I'd have on my plate were bar brawls, maybe some vehicular manslaughter now and again, wintertime burglaries in summer houses. But I investigated more violent crime there than when I was with the NYPD. And mind you, I worked New York back in the seventies and eighties."

A DARK LEGACYAlthough Ms. Fletcher initially enjoyed accolades for her help in solving most if not all of Cabot Cove's murders, that legacy has since grown tarnished by rumors, worries, and suspicions.

Ethan Cragg, local fishermen, said, "Look, Jessica was a friend of mine. A good friend. But I'm a fishermen, and, well, we're a superstitious lot. And after a while I couldn't help noticing a trend. Jessica traveled a lot. And like I said, wherever she went, someone met a nasty end. But while she was away, things round here, they got quiet again. Peaceful. No trouble, no bodies, no murder."

This trend was noticed by other residents. "Some folks think she was the real killer," confirmed Loretta Speigel, hairdresser and gossip. "Not me," she quickly clarified, "but some."

Former Sheriff Metzger also refuted that claim. "I've heard that one. I even considered it. Not because I believed what folks were saying, but just to see if it held water. But it doesn't. Too many times she had a perfectly good alibi for when the crime was committed. Sometimes she was even with me."

This has not daunted others in town from believing that Ms. Fletcher had at least some involvement with the killings. Resident Eric Colt, who would only describe himself as a "hunter," spins a particularly dark theory. "There's a lot in this world you take for granted," he said in his home on the outskirts of Cabot Cove. "Especially what you think ain't in this world. Because there's a whole lot of nasties prowling around out there that you'd rather think were just make-believe. Me, I've seen all kinds of things. I'm talking vamps and werewolves. Reapers. Shape-shifters. Witches and demons. I don't think Ms. Fletcher need've necessarily pulled the trigger to be the one responsible for all them murders."

THEORIES AND BELIEVERSIt is easy to discount Mr. Colt's claims. Unmarried and childless, he lives alone in a ramshackle house littered by liquor bottles. Many in town are quick to dismiss him as a drunk and a crank. And yet, while his fellow citizens scoff at the possible existence of vampires and werewolves, Mr. Colt's comments about Ms. Fletcher in particular seem to have caught on, at least partially.

No less an ardent supporter of Ms. Fletcher than former Sheriff Metzger concurs that her power of influence was considerable. "I have no doubt that we always caught the right guy. But honestly, I'm kind of shocked none of them beat the case we built against them. We'd lure the suspect out, Ms. Fletcher would give them this disapproving look, and these guys would just spill everything, confess it all, just like that. And I'd arrest them. These were all verbal confessions, mind you, and we hardly ever thought to record them. And half the time, if Ms. Fletcher had any evidence at all, it was purely circumstantial. But I'd arrest them, on her word alone. Even though any down-on-his-luck public defender at the end of his road could have torn a hole a mile wide in our case. I used to sweat bullets at night in between the arrest and the trial. No way would the jury buy our story. But then I'd see Ms. Fletcher up there in the witness box, and suddenly everything seemed alright again. I knew the jury would come back with a verdict of guilty. And they did, always. No one ever walked."

Even current Sheriff Broom admitted that, in retrospect, he is quite surprised by the open-door policy shown to Ms. Fletcher by his office in the past. "Every crime scene was contaminated pretty much from the start. No one ever barred her entry. So much of what we found shouldn't have been admissible in court just because of that. But she'd show up, and we'd wave her right under the tape, without even thinking about it, like it was procedure."

Mr. Colt pointed to both Sheriffs' remarks. "You might think we're all rubes up here, but we're not. Just look at Metzger. This guy was a city cop before he came up here, with the press and the mayor and the ACLU and everyone else hovering over his back every time he snapped the cuffs on some kid for tagging up a subway car. And up here, his constituents drop like flies. He has no shortage of experience working homicide cases. And yet this . . . woman, if you want to call her that, she shows up, and with a tap on his shoulder, a whisper in his ear, this guy's bending to her will, doing whatever she says. Like I said, I don't think she ever needed to get her hands dirty by pulling the trigger herself."

He then recommended interviewing Metzger's predecessor, former Sheriff Amos Tupper. This proved difficult. When Sheriff Tupper moved away from Cabot Cove upon retirement, he left a forwarding address in Kentucky, but further investigation revealed that he actually moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he changed his name to Frank Dowling and joined the Catholic priesthood.

Despite the change in office, he appeared to spend a great deal of time following his old vocation: solving violent crimes. Sister Stephanie Oskowski of St. Michael's Parish, over which Father Dowling presided, informed us that Dowling met a grisly end pursuing one such case about four years after joining the diocese. The Chicago Police Department confirmed that the case Dowling was investigating as well as that of his own murder remained unsolved.

"The original vic went missing three years before his body turned up in an alleyway on the South Side," a spokesperson from the CPD shared. "Family man, good citizen, no record. Just up and disappeared. According to the report, there was an eyewitness to his murder, but he was deemed unreliable. Homeless, possible mental issues, blood alcohol level of 0.3. Said he saw the vic chase another guy–bearded, trucker's cap, vest–into the alley, but then froze, as if trapped. The other guy supposedly strolled back up, said some Latin mumbo-jumbo, and then this jet of black smoke shot out of the vic's mouth, and the vic dropped dead. Apparently, officers on the scene did find the body lying on top of this weird satanic-looking graffiti spray-painted on the ground, but the autopsy showed he'd actually been dead for some time, of multiple gunshot wounds. Not sure how the body was preserved so well for so long before it was finally dumped there, but obviously this was a dump of some kind."

Father Dowling's body was found a week later in the same alley. The same eyewitness to the first murder claimed to witness Dowling's, too. According to his statement, Dowling ran into the alley with his attacker in pursuit, in the same fashion as the unidentified "trucker" in the previous incident. This time the pursuer stopped short of the graffiti, snapped his fingers, rematerialized behind Father Dowling, and slit Dowling's throat. The attacker then bled Dowling by his jugular into a goblet or chalice, stirred the blood with his finger while incanting, and proceeded to address it as "Lilith" in a one-sided conversation that lasted some minutes.

While the CPD has thoroughly discounted the eyewitness's testimony, Sister Oskowski believes it. "When Father Dowling first came to us, when I first began assisting his investigations, the results were . . . I hate to use the word "normal," but they were. Horrible crimes committed by humdrum human culprits. But toward the end, we saw some stuff. Weird stuff. Devils-and-angels sort of stuff. These things are real. Just like I told Agents Jovi and Sambora when they called asking the same questions about a week ago."

UNORTHODOX QUESTIONSSister Oskowski confirmed that "Jovi" and "Sambora" identified themselves as FBI agents investigating a homicide in Dowling's former jurisdiction back when he was Sheriff Tupper. She also confirmed that the two asked her several questions about Jessica Fletcher.

"I'll tell you what I told them," she said. "I'd heard of J.B. Fletcher, but only because of her books. I read a few of them. And now that I think of it, Father Dowling always gave them kind of a dirty look whenever he saw me with one. But he never said anything about having known her."

Several residents of Cabot Cove, as well as Sheriff Broom, also claim that "Jovi" and "Sambora" showed interest in Ms. Fletcher.

"Ayuh," answered Ethan Cragg. "They said they heard I knew her, wanted to know if anything about her struck me as strange. I told them the same I told you, that we were friends, ayuh, but I couldn't help but notice that the death toll dropped to nada whenever she'd skip off to New York or some other place."

"Their questions were weird from the get-go, even before they started zeroing in on Ms. Fletcher," said Sheriff Broom. "Had we noticed any cold spots? Found any hex bags? Smelled any sulphur? The whole town reeks of sulphur, but what's that got to do with anything?"

Hairdresser Loretta Speigel appeared particularly upset over the matter. "They asked if I ever noticed anything weird about her. Anything off. And I said yes. But I told them I wasn't sure of what I saw. I absolutely stressed that really it must have been me seeing things wrong. Imagining it all. But there was this one time, when I was doing her hair, and I looked up at her reflection in the mirror, and I swear, before she blinked, it looked like her eyes were totally black. You don't think those two took that heart, do you?"

Authorities ask for the public's help in locating the two suspects. "While they were here, they were seen driving a '67 Chevy Impala," Sheriff Broom said. "We have reason to believe that this is their own vehicle and not just a hot car. While they were here at the Sheriff's Office, a deputy dinged the Impala's side when he opened the door to his own vehicle. The man who identified himself as Agent Jovi appeared visibly upset by this. He kept stroking the dent and calling the Impala 'Baby.' This leads me to believe that the vehicle was his own and rather precious to him."